HAVE SIGNED

THE LETTER

We call on you to transfer the asylum seeker and refugee children and their families off Nauru for medical care appropriate to their needs.

The medical situation is urgent for this vulnerable group of children. Medical experts, including doctors who have worked on Nauru, have spoken repeatedly about their concerns. They report widespread, significant deteriorations in physical and mental health. There are disturbing reports of young children attempting suicide by lethal means and withdrawing from their environment until they are almost comatose (increasingly called resignation syndrome). This is an extreme physical response to sustained psychological trauma, and is life threatening. A growing number have been transferred by order of the Australian Federal Court for treatment.

We are aware that that there has been substantive investment by the Australian and Nauruan governments who provide health care on Nauru. We are aware that this includes provision of specialist mental health professionals including child psychiatrists. While we are grateful that these services continue to be extended, this will never bring resolution to these children’s symptoms. The circumstances of an involuntary and indefinite stay on Nauru directly contributes to their deterioration in mental state, which is why extending services on the island can never be the solution.

We wish to state explicitly that our call to transfer should in no way be viewed as a negative reflection on Nauru’s population, government or physical environment. The severe adverse physical and mental health effect of involuntary and indefinite stays have been widely reported around the world.

While we acknowledge the complexity of the situation, and that this in part results from a sincere desire to stop deaths at sea, we cannot accept that one policy necessitates harm to innocent children.

Our peak bodies have repeatedly offered to work with the government to provide independent oversight and expertise. This offer was repeated as part of the AMA President’s letter that you received on September 19, 2018.

We ask that you reconsider.

We are deeply uneasy that expert medical recommendations are unheeded by our government. It is a dangerous precedent for other areas of great health need across our communities.

It falls within our mandate as doctors and medical students to comment on and advocate for those requiring care within our health system. We undergo years of rigorous training and ongoing oversight to provide the Australian community with excellent medical care. We believe that this care should be delivered without regard for race, age, gender, ability level, or location.

We call on you to show your commitment to the strong health care system we have in Australia, which we are the guardians of, by accepting the recommendations of many medical experts and bringing these children and families to Australia so their health care needs can be met adequately, and with appropriate clinical oversight.